Hi all, and welcome to the 2017 CQ Ranking Manager Game! This is the seventh edition of the game. Please see below for some history, basics, and more specific rules related to dates, dopers, etc.

History

The game was launched on December 8th 2010 by cyclingnews forum poster Hugo Koblet. His idea was to have a game where you build a cycling team from the website cqranking.com and its comprehensive numerical rankings of riders. What was originally meant to be a 25-team max competition that Hugo reserved the right to cancel if there was lack of interest became the most successful game in cyclingnews forum history, and has expanded to velorooms forums as well.

Hugo successfully ran the game for 3 years, and it bred various offshoots, such as a youth game, seasonal games (classics and GTs), emerging riders and riders in decline games. I took over organizing the main game for 2014 when Hugo got too busy, and have done so for the past three years.

That is it for preamble. Let’s go through the more comprehensive set of rules:

Basics

The game is based on the point system developed by the website www.cqranking.com. Based on this system you will have to select a team of between 25 and 33 riders whose combined value doesn’t exceed 7500 points. 7500 points is a fair bit under the mean for the ProTour teams whose mean for 2016 is 8581 (although the median is 7564, much closer). 7500 is closest to the amount of points Cannondale-Drapac made this season, the 10th ranked of the 18 WT teams.

Your aim then is to select a team of riders who will increase their 2016 score the most during the 2017 season. The winner of the game is the one who has selected the team with the highest combined value when the game ends.

1. How the game works

1.1. Start & FinishThe season starts when the first race giving CQ points is held (which is the Aussie National TT Championships on January 5th) and ends when the last major race (.1 or higher) is held. The winner will be crowned when the next update after the last major race is out.*

*An extension will be granted to the end of season if it is very close at the top. If any teams are within 100 points of the leader after the last major race, the season will be automatically extended until the final race of the year unless all teams within 100 points explicitly concede. As well, anyone in the top 10 can extend the season by PMing me a request to do so before the last major race starts.

(The reason for this rule is that although minor races go through December, it is rare to have a rider in the game participate in these races, so it is sensible to end the season when people are still generally watching cycling. But if it's a very close race, it's important to crown the person who picked the best team for the year.)

1.2 UpdatesEach week we will publish an update with a top 10 and a list of the high scorers and high jumpers. This will sometimes be by me, and sometimes by others – I will be setting a tentative schedule based on volunteers.

2. On doping

2.1. On ex-dopersAll riders are available to choose, except for riders who are provisionally suspended by the UCI (as of their most recent list).

Riders who have been suspended for doping and had that affect their 2016 score will not be available simply for their 2016 score. Instead, a rider’s value will be equivalent to that of his last full season; or, if he has more recently had a (not full, due to suspension) season in which he has earned more points, that season represents his value. Riders who have been suspended by the UCI (ie. Not merely provisionally suspended) are on this list. **note that this year there is the exceptional case of some riders that are on this list but were found to have no fault. Those riders are available at 2016 score as there was essentially no doping infraction**

Therefore, you can pick any rider you like, but if you want to take Luca Paolini, for example, he won't cost the 0 points he earned in 2016 (he was suspended all year). His suspension began in 2015 so his last 'full' season was 2014, in which he scored 95 points. However, since he scored more in his 'partial' 2015 season, his cost is instead the 273 points he scored in that season.

Hopefully the lists I've provided and the rules are clear enough, but if you make an error I will try to let you know if any of your submissions fall into this category.

2.2. Riders getting caught during the seasonIf you include a rider in your team who gets caught with his hands in the cookie jar, nothing happens right away. Your rider keeps his points unless the cqranking.com deletes his results before the end of the game.

Basically, the value of a rider on cqranking.com always stands.

3. Submitting your team

3.1. How do I?You pick between 25 and 33 riders whose combined value doesn’t exceed 7500 points and send the list to me.

As I will manually have to include the teams into the Microsoft Excel file which keeps track of the scores, please be careful that you send your team to me based on the correct formula. I don’t take any responsibility for any error you might make. If I spot an error I will do my best to contact you but I can’t guarantee anything. Of course, if you have any questions feel free to ask either here in this thread or by sending a personal message.

The layout you need to use is this:

VALVERDE BELMONTE AlejandroCONTADOR VELASCO AlbertoEtc.

Nothing else. No points after the name. Also, be careful that there is no “space” after the name, because I will have to delete it manually, but can't always detect these things in time for the game. If there is an error that isn't discovered until after the game starts, the rider will simply be deleted from the team without replacement.

To make things easier for both you and me I will link to a file for you to download in which you can type in your team and it will automatically show you the value of each rider as well as the aggregated value of your team. Then you will just have to copy your team (names only) directly from this file and send it to me.

Hopefully this clears any misunderstandings of a rider’s value as well as reduces the number of errors made in a team sent to me.

3.2. When do I?The first race of the season will start January 5, so I want to have your team in hand on January 3 at the latest.

There are two deadlines: a submission deadline and a revision/publication deadline, spaced 24 hours apart. This is to address the issue brought up in recent years about whether it is 'fair' to allow changes after teams have seen the teams of other players, and for 'late' submissions. I would like to make this a game that is accessible to as many people as possible, yet preserve that element of fairness. So, the submission deadline will be when I want to have received all the teams. The revision and publication deadline is to allow a 24-hour period for me to look over the teams and allow a chance to people to change their team in case of error, before having access to a list of riders that other teams picked. If you get mixed up with the time zone or unexpectedly don't have internet access around the submission deadline, I will accept teams up to the revision deadline at my discretion, but if allowed those teams will not have the chance to revise in case of error.

The submission deadline is 23:59 (CET) January 2nd, so early January 3rd for Aussies and sometime earlier on January 2nd for North Americans. The revision and publication deadline is 24 hours later; I would ask that people refrain from posting the riders on their team until after that, so midnight CET on the start of January 4th.

Please note that even though it feels as though the season is over, it’s actually not. There are still racing to be done and CQ points to be handed out that could affect the value of a rider you have picked. It is always possible that an obscure rider may score points in a small race at the end of season, or that CQ will adjust points for an earlier season race for whatever reason (eg. readjusting points for suspended dopers) Be mindful of these changes.

cqranking.com usually uploads the final update of the season on December 31, and the values in this update are the ones we’re using. However, the changes are usually very small so there’s no reason why you can’t start selecting your team already today!

**Disclaimer: ensuring your team is full of eligible riders and is on budget is your responsibility. If I notice you are over budget or have an ineligible rider I will send you a message, but if you don't get back to me in time, or I don't catch it before the deadline, I will simply remove one rider to make your budget work. Obviously it is to your advantage to be able to choose all your riders, so please be diligent.**

Create Your Team

Hugo created a very helpful file in 2012, referred to above, that helps avoid any errors in calculation and helps ensure you are formatting your rider names correctly. I would encourage everyone to use this option, especially if you are not confident in your spreadsheet creating skills. Please use the file attached here to create your team, then copy and paste the rider names to send to me by PM once you have it correct. Thank you.

**note: the 'create your team' file has not yet been manually updated to include different scores for dopers as per rule 2.1, so it is currently wholly your responsibility to account for this.**

I think that about covers everything. If you have any questions or if I forgot to add or explain anything, please let me know.

Have fun and remember to visit www.cqranking.com! Without their great work it wouldn’t be possible to have this game.

This game is also being run through velorooms.com forums, and you can submit a team to me through either here or there. Updates will also be posted to both places.

Last edited by skidmark on 26 Dec 2016 23:07, edited 2 times in total.

This post is reserved to list submitted teams as they come in. If you have submitted a team recently and don't see it appear within 24 hours, please message me to see what is up. Teams on the list marked with an asterisk need a change, and I have messaged you with the details.

Here's an alphabetical list of teams I have confirmed as of a few hours before publication deadline - if you don't see your name on it and sent your team in, let me know asap.

Great! Here we go again. Can't wait to the holidays so that I can start working on my team. I probably say this every year, but I think it's particularly hard to make a good team this year. There are some obvious picks, but apart from those I think we'll see a big diversion in team selection this year.

Already started to build my team... This year looks harder than ever before because there are so many good picks! It looks impossible for me to fit all this picks in my team so I will either have to get rid of my 2 800+ picks or just not pick some 350-450 riders... This is so hard!

Karaev1 wrote:Already started to build my team... This year looks harder than ever before because there are so many good picks! It looks impossible for me to fit all this picks in my team so I will either have to get rid of my 2 800+ picks or just not pick some 350-450 riders... This is so hard!

Do you guys like any 1000 + picks this year?

PS: Big thanks to Skidmark for running the game!

I'm only considering one 1000+ rider, but I don't think he'll make it into my team. Although I'm beginning to doubt one of my other expensive picks, so I might end up including the 1000+ rider after all.

I fully agree with Karaev1 that there are almost too many obvious picks for next year. I am in the process of creating a short/longlist of riders I think needs to be in my team for 2017. So far I have found 58 but I'm sure the list will grow over the next week... None of the 58 are 800+ on current CQ ranking so I expect that the highest ranked rider in my team will be in the 700 points fraction for next year. BTW I finished 40th this year without Gaviria and Superman Lopez. So I try to be focused on the young Colombians for 2017; still Bernal is currently not among my 58

Karaev1 wrote:Already started to build my team... This year looks harder than ever before because there are so many good picks! It looks impossible for me to fit all this picks in my team so I will either have to get rid of my 2 800+ picks or just not pick some 350-450 riders... This is so hard!

Do you guys like any 1000 + picks this year?

PS: Big thanks to Skidmark for running the game!

I'm considering a 3000+ rider.

After all, just about every year, I choose with my heart. I think 4500 points is doable for my top pick next year

Out all of the expensive picks, with a little bit of luck, all these riders have a realistic potential to double their points next year. Even guys like Cavendish can do it. After all, this year, he wasted half of his season on riding track and the Olympics so 2000+ points would be no surprise.

Jancouver wrote:Out all of the expensive picks, with a little bit of luck, all these riders have a realistic potential to double their points next year. Even guys like Cavendish can do it. After all, this year, he wasted half of his season on riding track and the Olympics so 2000+ points would be no surprise.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of interest this time around, going by this thread alone. We could be looking at a record low number of entrants, apart from the first edition. Does anyone know if the game is being promoted on other platforms such as Twitter, like it was a few years ago? (I ditched my social media accounts years ago due to time constraints)

18-Valve. (pithy) wrote:There doesn't seem to be a lot of interest this time around, going by this thread alone. We could be looking at a record low number of entrants, apart from the first edition. Does anyone know if the game is being promoted on other platforms such as Twitter, like it was a few years ago? (I ditched my social media accounts years ago due to time constraints)

It could be that less is posted because there are no big changes this year like there were last year with the polka dot jersey etc..

Maybe we can list all the 0-pointers available, so Jancouver can make a team of 6 expensive guys and 27 0-pointers? If those expensive guys all double their points as Jancouver says, he scores 15000 points and likely wins

Hakkie2 wrote:Maybe we can list all the 0-pointers available, so Jancouver can make a team of 6 expensive guys and 27 0-pointers? If those expensive guys all double their points as Jancouver says, he scores 15000 points and likely wins